Zombie Land Saga has taken a different route these past few episodes. There have been far fewer jokes, and burst of genuine emotional storytelling, and this has helped turn it from a merely good show into a truly memorable one.
Lily’s Time To Shine
This week’s episode focused almost entirely on Lily. Until now, she’s essentially been Zombie Land Saga’s token loli character, but this time, she was given real character development, albeit in a rather strange way.
There were two revelations: first, Lily used to be called Masao. This information, unfortunately, was only used for a few minutes of comedic value, and could have been so much more. Really, if you cut this out and substitute two minutes of literally any other video, it would have no bearing on the overall plot. The second was that Lily’s dad was alive, and recognised her during one of her performances.
Poor Little Big Guy
It would have been easy for the show to take things in a totally predictable direction. Lily’s dad is first portrayed as a hulking guy who hangs out at the park with a weird expression on his face. However, he actually has a fairly heart-warming backstory, and by the end of the episode, it’s hard not to feel bad for him.
We won’t go into too many details here (seriously, watch it for yourself if you have time), but the episode culminates with Franchouchou debuting a new song. The rhythm is a little weird initially, and while it’s no Mezame Returner, it’s still pretty good. Best of all, there’s no CG in sight!
Admittedly, the dance routine is pretty simplistic, which may have made animating it easier, but still: this was one of Zombie Land Saga’s most engrossing episodes, and anything that helps keep the viewer immersed is a good thing in our view.
Who’s Left To Talk About?
By this point, we’ve learned about pretty much all of Franchouchou, except for Tae, Sakura, and Yuugiri. Sakura still wants to know who the idols she remembers are (hint: it’s Iron Frill), so expect to see more on this in the episodes to come. Meanwhile, Tae still hasn’t woken up, so it’s unlikely we’ll be getting any answers on that front.
Yuugiri has taken a backseat and only really provides moral support. As the only band member from a wildly different time period, it could be interesting to find out a little more about her, though. Still, there are five episodes left, so we may still get some character development yet!
